The Bachelorette
by ThatNeighborhoodBlonde
Summary: Sharpay Evans wants to find love to compliment the success of her career, by starring on the Bachelorette. Troy Bolton just got dumped by his high school sweetie and (although he doesn't know it) is in need of a pick-me-up. Dan & Chad step in and sign him up for the show without the knowledge of him or Sharpay. Surprise, surprise when he steps out of that limo... PLEASE R&R! :)
1. Chapter 1

**ps – i don't own anything (except my own ideas)**

_Sharpay Evans has never had a shot at a real relationship. She was always too busy pursuing her dream to be a star on Broadway. In high school, Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan trained harder than anyone else while maintaining over 85% in all of their classes. They took every style of dance out there, they took acting lessons and singing lessons, all to reach one goal: to attend The Juilliard School of Dance, Drama and Music._

_In the end, only her brother was accepted into the program. However, Sharpay went along with him to New York City spending her days working at a local coffee shop and her nights searching for auditions. One day her efforts started to pay off, she landed the lead role in an Off-Broadway Original Production. After that, auditions for roles started pouring in and Sharpay's dream started to come true. But she always felt there was something missing, a man to share all her glory with._

_Now, six years later, the twenty-five year old Sharpay has been in multiple productions on and off Broadway partaking in both starring and supporting roles; including one that was nominated for a Tony Award. Feeling fulfilled, for now, in that particular area of her life, Sharpay is ready to settle down and find a man. _That_ gentlemen is your job. You must sweep Miss Evans off her feet; the goal here is to fall in love, to gain a rose at each ceremony._

_To apply or nominate someone please make a video that is approximately five minutes in length. Include everything we should know about you, have lots of details and be specific._

_To find guidelines for your video or more information on Sharpay please visit .com_

Dan Williams chuckled and rested the pamphlet on the arm of the old worn out brown leather sofa that sat in the living room of his spacious apartment. He knew this was exactly what his roommate needed, especially after that uptight "high school sweetheart" of his dumped him for some stereotypical rich Wall Street guy in a suit. However, after playing professional basketball with Troy Bolton for five years, he's learned a few things about the man—Troy does not like to be pushed into things and he is not interested in pick-up-a-girl-at-a-bar-rebound-sex.

In Dan's mind, that just meant that he would have to work that much harder to persuade his friend to do the show and maybe start out by doing a few things behind his back, like nominate him to be a contestant on the Bachelorette...

Dan pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number of a former team-mate, "Hi, Chad? No Taylor, it's Dan, I need to talk to Chad is he around? Yeah, yeah I'll hold... Hey man, I need your help, it's about Troy. I think I know how to help him get over Gabby..."

Chad immediately said yes without even thinking and told Dan that he was on his way over. Both friends were tired of Troy's moping phase and were ready for him to either move on to a new relationship or start having some serious rebound sex (which they knew he was not into). Within a couple hours Chad was at Dan's and was filled in on the situation and sitting across from Dan on an oversized Papasan chair. He thought it was a great idea to enter Troy into a reality TV show to fight for a girl he didn't know!

"Oh, by the way, did you say that there is a write up about the chick in that pamphlet that came in the mail?" Chad asked Dan, he was curious to see what kind of girl they were setting up their boy with.

"Yeah, it's right here," Dan handed him the pamphlet. "We're lucky Troy's out for his long workout today, could you imagine what he would say if we—"

"No. Way."

"What is—"

"Sharpay Evans? That's who's doing the show?! Man, she really has stooped to an all new low..."

Dan was confused, "An all new low? Do you know her or something?"

"Sharpay Evans was (or maybe still is) the "Ice Queen". Troy and I went to high school with her; she was this spoiled bitch who expected people to move mountains for her. It's funny, I'm surprised she didn't talk all about her Daddy's money in this...thing," Chad flapped the pamphlet and rolled his eyes. He never has hidden his distaste for the girl.

"So maybe we shouldn't—"

Chad laughed, "No, no, we still should! Troy was always nice to her, for some reason that was beyond me... The rest of the team and I would make bets to see if they would actually ever fuck each other. There was this discrete but obvious sexual tension that went on between them for years, but nothing ever happened; especially once Gabby and Troy got serious."

"Ohh, so you're thinking we just won't tell him then?" Chad nodded.

The door of the apartment opened to reveal a very sweaty Troy Bolton carrying a basketball under his arm, coming home from his workout. "Hey guys," He acknowledged the two with a head nod, throwing his white work-out towel over his shoulder. "Let me just shower quickly then we can go."

Chad quickly hid the pamphlet for the show under one of the couch cushions and looked at his friend quizzically.

"For drinks? Today is Friday is it not?" Troy replied. "We always go out Friday nights."

"Oh right, right, I remember. Hurry up then man or all the good tables will be gone!"

When Troy left the room Dan turned to Chad, "Will Tay mind if I come over tomorrow? We could start the tape then."

"Sounds good."

The bright and early the next morning Dan showed up at Chad's quaint yet modern grey and brown townhouse with a video camera in his hand. "Let's do this bitch!" Chad said a little too loudly waking his wife, Taylor McKessie, up.

"Awe hell Chad, what are you two up to now?" Taylor asked rhetorically as she came down the stairs. Shaking her head she led the way into the open stainless steel kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. "It's eight o'clock in the morning on a Saturday."

"I know Tay but we have this plan," Taylor looked at Dan questionably as he said this. "You know the show The Bachelorette? Well, we've decided to set Troy up to go on it! It's a great way for him to get over Gabriella!"

"And you couldn't have just hired him a stripper?"

"Babe, it's more complicated than that," Chad pitched in. "Strippers only take his mind off of things for a little while. Whereas sending him off on a new adventure entirely would help him move on with his life."

"You have a point. Just stay out of trouble, don't break anything and please don't drag me into this..."

Chad kissed his wife on the cheek and said with a wink, "Yes dear."

The boys set out to find a space with good lighting. They found that the porch out back off the kitchen had the best light with its wooden panels and colourful flower pots that Taylor had arranged beautifully. They set up the furniture so that both Dan and Chad could facing each other and set up the camera.

"I think one of us should film and the other should talk about Troy. That's what it suggests on the website," Dan wanted to be the one to be on camera because after all, it was his idea.

"Good plan. So you'll film while I talk about my best friend? That was so sweet of you to offer!"

"I wasn't—wait a minute. Why do you get to be the one to talk about him?!"

"Well, I have known him for longer and I know Sharpay and the winning reason—I have the best hair." Chad stated this matter-of-factly referring to his wild curly hair that he has had since he was a baby.

Dan sighed in defeat. He knew Chad well enough to know that his argument would only get more and more crazy, he would bring Taylor into it and leave Dan feeling guilty. "Fine, I will film you," he said dryly with an eye roll. "Just remember to include—"

"Yeah, yeah I got it; just hit the record button already!" He was extremely excited to start the process.

"Okay," Dan hit the record button and signalled for Chad to start talking.

"Hey, my name is Chad Danforth. I am making this video today with my friend Dan Williams to nominate our friend Troy Bolton to be a contestant on your show.

You see, Troy just got out of this long term relationship with his high school sweetie Gabriella. She left him for some rich Wall Street dumb ass—am I allowed to say that on TV? Anyways, long story short, we felt that this show would be a great way for him to get over her.

So, a little bit about my man... He is a basketball player and has been since he was a little kid. Now he plays for the LA Lakers. But, we grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and came out to Cali when we got accepted to UC Berkley together. Basketball and his girl were his life, when she left him he only had basketball and us. Now going back, I'm sure you are not stupid—"

"Chad!" the voice from behind the camera nagged.

"Sorry but they should take this as a compliment! I bet you noticed my little reference to our hometown Albuquerque? Troy and I attended East High School together there. Now the wheels are turning aren't they? Yes, Sharpay Evans was a fellow classmate ours. And yes, she was a royal pain in the ass—again please excuse the language—but she was. Maybe it was because she "worked so hard" or maybe it was because her Daddy gave her everything she asked for. Either way, as you can see I have never been a fan of hers. However, our boy Troy here... Personally, I always thought that these two had some kind of sexual tension going on throughout high school. Maybe I am crazy for doing this or maybe it will bring in lots of ratings for your show...

Look, Troy doesn't know that we are doing this for him; if he did I am pretty sure he would kill us—especially if he knew it was Sharpay. And I would suggest not telling her about this either... Don't believe me yet? I bet you all think I'm making this crap up to get Troy on your show, I'm not."

Chad suddenly got up from his deck chair and ran out of the screen back into the house.

"Dude!"

A minute later, which felt like an embarrassing, awkward filled silence minute to Dan, Chad returned with his yearbook from senior year; he flipped to Sharpay's picture, "Here she is here! See, I told you I'm not lying!" Chad chuckled to himself. "If you want to contact me about this, my number is 626-555-8764. Oh, and I'm sure you'll want to check this guy out!" He chuckled again, "So we'll stick some pictures in with this disk."

He nodded slightly to Dan signalling he was finished. Dan shut off the camera, leaned over and whacked Chad over the head.

"Hey! What was that for?!"

"You—"

"I was a good salesman Williams, how do you think people get on this show?" He paused for the answer to his rhetorical question. "They have to have some kind of dirt or baggage or be crazy! Troy will bring so much drama to this show; the producers will eat our shit up!"

"Okay, I guess you're right. I'll put it together and mail it first thing tomorrow." Dan got up out of his chair to let himself out.

Chad called after him, "I got some hot pictures of him at the beach last summer, I'll send you them!"

Dan turned around and gave Chad an incredulous look. He gave him a slow nod and just kept walking. _I really don't get him sometimes... _He thought.

**Thanks for reading ! Please review and let me know what you thought ! **

**xoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

**ps – i don't own anything (except my own ideas)**

Tim Crothers, the Assistant Producer for the Bachelorette, walked into the Bachelor/Bachelorette offices with the day's mail in his hand. He sat down at his cheap office-standard metal desk and began sorting through the mail, there were at least a dozen more entries that had come through that day and it was his job to pick out the good ones to show to Jerry Fox, the Producer.

Tim started to pop in the disks one by one into his outdated computer and after the first few they all started to blend together. Every guy told the same bullshit story they had their closest female friend write in an attempt to sucker in both the Bachelorette staff and the audiences. But then he opened a brown envelope that was heavier than the rest. The reason was found when he opened it, inside was a large stack of pictures that were obviously developed for other reasons than the show. The pictures were of a guy at the beach, who, in Tim's masculine opinion was not all that bad looking—his skin was tanned, with defined muscles (obviously from a sport) with sandy brown hair and striking blue eyes. He popped the disk into his computer and an African-American man with big dark curly hair came up on the screen, "Hey, my name is Chad Danforth..."

Enticed, Tim watched the entire video. Although the option was available to nominate a friend for the show, it was very rarely done and when it is, it is usually a ridiculous joke. However this time these two friends convinced Tim that they may actually be serious about getting their friend on the show, plus they have a great plot twist to add to the story. As soon as Tim was convinced himself, he called over Jerry immediately to take a look at it. Just like Tim, Jerry thought the idea was great. Although skeptical about a few details, he knew he would be able to work it out with either the contestant or his friends. Both producers commended the boys for the good idea to put their friend on the show and the plot twist to come along with it. _That Chad guy is right_, Tim thought, _it will most definitely boost ratings!_

"I can't believe I'm kind of moving to LA, I never thought I would be going over there," Sharpay Evans said incredulously to her best friend Monica. She wasn't the same girl she was in high school, now she was far less demanding, egotistical and overall less dramatic. In high school, Sharpay would be having a fit at this moment; calling Daddy and making him make them bend the rules and move the show to where _she _wanted—New York City—and have the Producer allow her to come to the studio and control everything. Because honestly, she felt that Los Angeles and the whole "California scene" was too laid back for her, she still liked to have control over as much as she could. But, she has grown as a person and learned that people won't just do things because you don't like it or because you want to try to pay them off, sometimes you have to just do it and deal with it.

Monica laughed, "I know, I know, fifth time you've told me." She winked. "But hey! You're going to be on TV, and be the star of your own show with _tons_ of guys drooling at you all the time. So what if it starts out in LA? You always travel anyways, plus you'll move back! Unless your fiancé wants you move somewhere else..." She stuck her nose up in the air as she shoved one of Sharpay's shirts into her suitcase. If that happened she would really miss her best friend; she met both Evans twins the first week they moved out to New York. Being born and raised in New York, Monica knew her way around the city and she became their personal tour guide, from that the three of them became best friends and have been ever since.

"Right, like I'll move anywhere! I don't see myself leaving this place anytime soon, I love New York!"

Sharpay's phone rang, "Hello? Oh hi, Jerry! How are you? I'm fine thanks, just getting ready to come out your way. My e-mail? For my flight? Okay. How about the list? Is it ready? Do I get to see it? Ha ha, yes I know... I'll see you soon. Bye."

"So?! Did he cave? Will he give you the guys' names?" Monica was more excited about the experience than Sharpay was.

"No," Sharpay said with frustration. "It was a long shot but I thought if I batted my eyes enough, he would send them to me."

"Oh well, I'll just have to watch it! Slash you have to constantly send me updates!" Sharpay just rolled her eyes at her best friend but nodded anyways, knowing full well they'd be on the phone every night discussing the day's events.

At seven thirty the next morning Chad was awoken by the unnecessarily loud ringing of his cell phone. "Hello?" He answered groggily.

"Mr. Danforth?" A voice asked in a very professional tone.

Chad shot straight up, his intuition telling him it was the call he had been waiting for, "Yes sir, that's me!"

"My name is Jerry Fox, I am calling regarding your entry to the Bachelorette."

He took a deep breath in an attempt to stay calm, he was excited about their devious idea but also very nervous. "Hi Mr. Fox, what did you think of our tape?"

"I just want to straighten something out first... You want me to put your friend on our show without him knowing who the Bachelorette is and without her knowing who he is? You want us to put him on our show so that he can get over some girl. You think that Sharpay will okay being his rebound girl?"

"Umm... Yes? Well not about being the rebound... He's already had lots of those... It wouldn't be a rebound... He's ready for another relationship, it's what he wants, he just doesn't exactly know it yet..."

"I see... Well I was calling to tell you that we would like to put him on our show. What you said just there confirmed it, which pleases me. You and your friend are right, all of us over at the studio thought that your idea was brilliant."

"Thank you sir!" Chad said with pride.

"How can we shoot the video about him that we will show at the beginning of the show?"

"Well, would it be alright if I called you back about that? We haven't told him we signed him up yet. So what we will do is break it to him first and then give you a date? Is there one that works best for you?"

"We would like to shoot it on Wednesday. Please call me when he knows so we can work out the finer details. And Chad?"

"Yes sir?"

"He better not say no."

"Don't worry sir, he—" It was too late, Mr. Fox had already hung up.

By this time, Chad was already out of bed and half dressed in such a rush to get over to Troy and Dan's. He had his fingers crossed and was wishing on all the stars in the sky, even though they are invisible in the morning. The phone call from Jerry really excited him but it also made him extremely nervous that Troy would say no and it would ruin their whole plan. He didn't give himself too much time to worry though because the excitement over came him, and he would have to really sell it if he wanted to get Troy to buy into the idea.

"What the hell?" Troy woke up to the banging on the door of his apartment, in his groggy state he thought it was loud enough to wake the entire building, he opened the door to a very peppy looking Chad which made him even less impressed to be woken up.

Not far behind Troy was Dan, who was also awoken by the banging. However, as soon as he saw the excitement in Chad's face, he knew, "Did you—"

"I did!" Chad exclaimed.

"Is he?"

"He is!"

Troy, completely unaware of what was going on between his friends, started to ask what they were talking about but then decided it was too early to care and started to head back to his bed. With Troy's back turned walking away sluggishly, Chad quickly and quietly whispered the essence of what Producer Jerry told him to Dan.

"Troy where you going man?" Dan called after him, realizing his roommate was walking away.

"Back to bed," he responded in a calm manner but had underlying tones in his voice that this was the obvious decision.

Chad caught up with Troy and stepped in front of him, "Oh no you don't! We have something to talk to you about!"

"Um, okay," Troy was nervous, he hadn't seen Chad that giddy in a long time and Dan looked pretty happy as well.

The three men went through the hallway, crossed the open living room and into Dan and Troy's sleek and modern kitchen to get coffee. Dan and Chad took a seat at the bar style island while Troy fixed a pot of coffee for them; they all were silent.

"Okay," Troy said abruptly. "I can't take this silence, what is going on here?!"

"This is so exciting, I promise," Chad exclaimed.

"But you have to promise not to be mad," Dan continued cautiously.

Troy narrowed his striking baby blues suspiciously, "What did you guys do?"

Both Chad and Dan started to smile as though they felt they were so ridiculously smart for what they had done and together said, "You're going on The Bachelorette!" Then the two high-fived, just like Barney Stinson on _How I Met Your Mother_.

Troy, who had been listening very hard to what they had to say, started to laugh. He was in stitches because there was no way he heard his friends correctly. His laughter died down to a completely straight face when he realized neither Dan nor Chad was laughing along with him, instead they wore the exact dead serious expression Troy now had on his own face. "You aren't kidding."

Chad shook his head.

"What the fuck guys! Why couldn't it be one of you two if you thought it was so brilliant? I don't need that shit in my life right now! Hold on, this better have nothing to do with Gabriella..."

"Well seeing as I'm married and Dan found the ad first, we thought it would be fun for you! The chick who's the Bachelorette is really something. Plus it's exactly what you need, go make some new friends, have some fun with a new girl and travel around; you can't complain about that!"

"Who is this Bachelorette? Why haven't I heard you mention a name yet?"

Dan piped up, "Well actually that has been on purpose, the Producers think it would be fun if you don't know who she is. That way it can be just like a real 'blind date' when you get out of the limo for the first time."

"And they're doing this for all of the guys?"

"Yeah man, it's this new thing they're trying out this season," Chad lied and he really felt quite guilty about doing that to his best friend but he knew it would work out in the end.

Troy sighed in defeat, "And you think this will actually be a fun experience?" Both boys nodded feverously. "Alright then, what the hell right?"

By that time their coffee was ready, Troy handed them each their cup of joe and the three of them made a morning cheers to new adventures, as crazy as Troy still thought his friends were.

Sharpay walked down the runway towards her plane with determination, she was nervous about this whole experience. For the past few years Sharpay had not been one to advertise her personal relationships, especially not over national television. However both Monica and Ryan constantly pointed out to her her reason for joining the show: to have fun and meet new people. Living in New York, Sharpay never had a problem finding guys, but she had a terrible time finding the right guy—her biggest problems seemed consist of gay guys, who she loved but they make it hard to find straight guys that measure up to the same standard, and if they weren't gay, they were flat out douche bags. As she boarded the plane and the flight attendant showed her to her seat in the third row, Sharpay was in a daze. She kept thinking about her reasons for going over and over in her head to keep her from getting out of her seat and running right back off the plane to Ryan and Monica who she had left behind at the terminal and forgetting the whole crazy idea. _But NO, _Sharpay thought to herself grasping the arms of her seat, _you're Sharpay Evans. Be the fucking ICE QUEEN if you must but you cannot back out of this now because of some silly butterflies!_

Throughout the flight Sharpay kept herself occupied by making conversation with the person in the seat next to her, a manager for some band that she did not recognize but are apparently making quite the name for themselves, and watching a bunch of television shows and movies on her personal screen—she even came across some old Bachelorette episodes. _Los Angeles must be getting close now, _she thought as the flight attendant came over the loud speaker to prepare the passengers for landing.

"Well here goes nothing," she mumbled to herself. _To the next chapter in my life, however long or short that may be._

**THANKS FOR READING !  
PLEASE REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEW and let me know what you thought ! ! !**

**xoxo**


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